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For the wider crypto community, there are only three major coins that everyone looks at; Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP. All three of them are down massively this year after the crypto bubble burst. Just how much? Bitcoin is down nearly -75% year-to-date, Ethereum has plunged over -88% YTD and Ripple’s XRP token has lost over -50% of its value this year. Comparatively, it doesn’t take long to figure out that Ripple’s XRP is the strongest among the top three coins.

Regulatory space has been the major reason behind the current selloff in the crypto markets and of course, the lack of any real projects has also impacted the industry. Ethereum was by far the strongest coin at the start of this year when we look at actual use and adoption. Several tokens were issued based on this protocol, however, scaling became the biggest nightmare for Ethereum.

Compared to its peers, Ripple has the wealthiest community in terms of project support. There is no doubt that throughout this year, Ripple has shown that it can bring the biggest names to its conferences. This shows the company’s reach and the talent it can attract. At the same time, the team has worked hard to get banks to integrate their systems. But there is still a lot of work that needs to be done if Ripple really wants its technology fully integrated into the banking system.

So which of the three top coins will outperform the rest and bring the biggest return on investment?

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As mentioned earlier, this year it was Ripple that got the least bruises in this battle. Ripple’s team has been busy creating partnerships with industry leaders. If the system is good enough and also ticks all the boxes from the regulators’ point of view, it is a lot easier for institutions to integrate a technology that exists and has already gone through all the hoops rather than develop something from scratch.

Some of the most significant partnerships Ripple created are with Israel’s GMT, Turkey’s Akbank, American Express, CIBC, MoneyGram and Earthport in order to facilitate the cross-border payments. Having said this, the jury is still out on the regulatory status for Ripple. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hasn’t decided if it is a security or not. The most obvious reason is the decentralised nature of Ripple’s platform but at the same time, it has tightened its leash for other ICOs accused of selling unregistered securities.

Going into 2019, Ripple would have to ensure two things, besides industry partnerships; to keep integration on top of their list and to secure major players in the industry who are willing to provide custody. For instance, Coinbase recently announced its list of 30 assets to its trading list and XRP was one of them. Looking forward, if Goldman Sachs or another similar institution jumps into this industry, Ripple’s team need to make sure that XRP token is on top of their list. Ripple's XRP could become the most dominant token going into 2019 if the company can deliver on the above.